Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to access control technologies used by publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. It may also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices. Digital rights management technologies attempt to control use of digital media by preventing access, copying or conversion by end users to other formats.
Digital rights management technologies limit access to protected files. Many of these technologies limit access to protected files through the use of software. Moreover, the software effected limitations generally limit access to the file itself. Current technology enables content to be downloaded onto and delivered from portable content storage devices (to playback devices) that can be provided by a vendor to an end user. Conventional digital rights management approaches such as software that are associated with the digital files do not provide the type of off-line managed time based control of access to the storage device itself or portions thereof needed to appropriately manage the access to digital files stored thereon.
In particular, such approaches are not suited to controlling access to content provided by a vendor to an end user on a storage device where off-line managed time based access to content that an end user is given possession of is needed. For example, offline administered exams or questionnaires that have been downloaded onto a content storage device and provided to exam takers where administrators designate a limited amount of time to provide answers for the exam or rented video content that is downloaded onto a content storage device where an end user has rented access to the video content for a certain amount of time. Importantly, conventional systems do not protect devices, volumes, folders or files from being open to reads and writes in an off-line scenario where the enforcement is directed free of the involvement of a network or a host operating system.
Conventional DRM technologies are not designed to provide time based limitations on access to content in situations such as those discussed above where termination of access has traditionally depended on end users voluntarily returning the content to the vendor. Accordingly, conventional approaches to controlling access to content are inadequate for vendors desiring to take advantage of current technologies that enable transfer of possession of digital content to end users on portable content storage devices. Accordingly, such approaches are not suitable where limited time wise access to the content of a storage device is required.